MERCOSUR is an abbreviation for Mercado Común del Sur or Common Market of the South. It is a free trade zone in South America established by the Treaty of Asunción on 26 March 1991 between the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The founding members have been joined by Venezuela and Bolivia is in the process of acceding to the treaty. Most of the other countries of South America are associate members.
With a combined population of over 295 million in a land area of nearly 15 million square kilometres MERCOSUR is an important trading partner for the UK and other EU member states. To assist small and medium enterprises that wish to do business with the region the European Commission funds the MERCOSUR IPR SME Helpdesk. Like the other SME IPR Helpdesks this is a joint venture between universities and intellectual property offices in Europe and South America.
The Helpdesk offers a range of services including SME clinics and workshops. It is not every day that a clinic or workshop is held in the United Kingdom and it is even less common for one to be held in Yorkshire but on 6 March 2015 at 13:00 there will be a workshop in Hull on Protecting and exploiting your IP assets in South America with a special focus on Brazil. The workshop will take place at the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber, 48 Queen Street, Hull, HU1 1UU. Admission is free but it is necessary to register through Eventbrite in advance. I am grateful to Dr Alison Orr of Inngot Ltd., who will be speaking at the event, for drawing it to my attention.
Dr Orr will be speaking on Using your IP to Take off Internationally: Protecting and Exploiting Your Assets in International Collaborations. She will be followed by Alexandra Fezer of Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum who will discuss the Helpdesk and its services. Hicham Abghay also of Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum will speak on Latin American business co-operation. Hiago Busch of Baylos Abogados will give the main talk on Intellectual Property Rights in Latin America with a special focus on Brazil. That will cover
- General Overview of IP in the MERCOSUR region and Chile
- IP Protection Rules: Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights
- IP Exploitation: Licensing, IP Valuation, Start-ups creation
- IP Enforcement: Counterfeiting, IP Rights registration.
Latin America is an area in which we are particularly interested with the upcoming Olympic Games next year as sports law is one of our specialisms. If you are going to the workshop (or even of you are not) you should find our overview on the law of Brazil helpful, If you want further information give me a call on 01484 599090 or use my contact form.
